Confession
by LZClotho
Summary: An extended version of the scene where Regina had Sidney confess to kidnapping Kathryn Nolan. Swan Queen's delicious tension. No relationship.


_This is my extended version of the confrontation between Regina and Emma over Sidney's confession of kidnapping Kathryn Nolan. Enjoy._

Regina raked her fingers through her hair. _Where had this all gone to hell so fast?_ This, damn Emma Swan, was supposed to be her happy ending!

When Kathryn reappeared, confronting Rumple had revealed that the man didn't fulfill his deal. Admittedly she hadn't been able to bring herself to tell the man explicitly to kill Kathryn. Regina had suffered a pang of remorse that it had come to that because Kathryn couldn't stay and keep David from Mary Margaret. Kathryn's "you've been a good friend" had just hit her emotionally. A weakness, she snarled. But now she had to deal with the fall out. And Rumple was right. The trail was leading right to Regina's door. Damn the man!

Now though Sheriff Swan knew - where she'd only suspected before - that Mary Margaret was being set up. Regina needed to deflect her attention and quickly.

She considered that Sidney had successfully convinced Emma he was on her side when the newly minted Sheriff discovered an apparent trail of embezzlement. The memory of Emma's utter humiliation still had the power to bring a gleeful smile to Regina's face. Having sent Sidney away with orders to write a 'Welcome Home, Kathryn" story for the paper, focusing on several quotes from the mayor about how pleased she was her friend was back, she picked up the phone and called him again. "Come here now," she ordered. "I have something else I need you to do."

Twenty minutes later Regina stood from behind her desk and warned Sidney with her darkening expression that she expected success. She would in fact pave the way for him.

* * *

There was no one in the the Sheriff's Office when Regina entered. She glared at the empty cell that should by all rights have Mary Margaret panicked and alone inside. No doubt Emma Swan was among those celebrating Mary Margaret's release at the hovel she called an apartment.

Regina stepped up to the Sheriff's desk, her gaze flicking with curiosity over the disorganized papers. Spying the corner of a photograph beneath the edge of a form report, Regina thought getting an idea of the cases the sheriff was working would be useful. Regina slid it out.

It was a school picture of Henry. A recent one, too. She had always marveled in all the tiny differences of his growing each year. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She knew she had last year's picture still on her home office desk. This was clearly this year's picture. He hadn't even brought them home to her yet.

Emma Swan had supplanted Regina's position as Henry's mother so thoroughly that her son didn't even bring his _pictures_ home to her anymore. A red haze descended across Regina's field of vision when she flipped over the image and read the note in Henry's careful young script on the back:

_I'm glad I found you. Now everything will be great! Love, Henry_

Regina's fist tightened as she imagined Emma reading the note, hugging her son in thanks. When the red haze cleared, Regina shook her head, blinking back tears she refused to shed, taking solace instead in anger. The photograph lay in two pieces in her hands. She heard noises and quickly dropped the photo bits onto the desk. To cover it, she turned her back to the desk and leaned, settling herself into a cross-armed casual authoritative pose. At its height though, she wasn't quite leaning nonchalantly.

So she hopped onto the surface, crossing her legs at the ankles. She was adjusting her skirt when Emma Swan entered the office. Quickly she planted her hands to either side of her thighs curling her fingers around the edge of the desk, assuming her most self-assured smile and posture.

Emma was visibly surprised to see her there, but the expression cleared rapidly as the woman spoke. "Madame Mayor?" she questioned.

"Sheriff Swan?"

"What brings you by at this late hour?" The blonde approached slowly and Regina easily read the wariness in her body language. Regina smiled, pleased she could set the infernal woman off-balance.

But the green eyes began to flick over Regina, taking in and analyzing Regina's position on top of Emma's desk, and Regina had the suddenly feeling that she wasn't entirely comfortable with how she appeared. She had this insane urge to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear as she lifted her gaze to meet Emma as she continued ever closer. She swallowed, and recognized uncertainty in herself. She straightened. Damn it. She had every right to do what she'd done. This was _her_ town, _her_ happy ending. Everything came second to that.

But Emma's gaze continued to search her face and Regina found her tongue not at all as glib as she'd planned when she finally spoke. "I have a confession for you, Sheriff."

Emma stopped still several feet away from the desk. From her position though Regina had to tilt up her chin to maintain eye contact. She didn't like exposing her throat but she swallowed and held extremely still.

"A confession?" Emma's tone made Regina smile, but the knot in her stomach also rose in temperature the longer she held the green-eyed gaze. Emma seemed to shift from authoritative to curious.

Exhaling, Regina finally broke the contact just as she felt her heartbeat beginning to quicken uncomfortably. "Sidney!" She cast her voice toward the office door.

Emma turned away, watching Sidney enter the space. With her face in profile to Regina, the blonde's immediate reaction was unreadable. And Regina looked. She noted the column of Emma's throat and the way the muscles curved, making the tendons stand out. She noticed the smooth underside of Emma's jaw, the tilt of her nose that almost exactly matched Henry's, the flutter of golden lashes as Emma blinked. Tearing her gaze from the woman, Regina cast a narrowed gaze toward her sacrificial lamb.

Head slightly downcast, Sidney Glass made no preamble: "I did it. I kidnapped Kathryn. Locked her in my basement. You'll find fingerprints and DNA - hers and mine - everywhere."

Regina had to carefully school her expression when the Sheriff turned back to face her already shaking her head. "In the hallway. Now."

Regina, for a rare moment in her adult life, was cowed into immediate obedience. That made her angry. Not since her mother...

Sheriff Swan had taken a step back. Regina stormed ahead of her, fighting to pull the upper hand back as she passed close to the blonde and heard her intake of breath. They both passed Sidney who said nothing and shrank from the darkness in Regina's gaze.

Her mind was flying a mile a minute as she tried to figure out what the blonde would say - and how she should best counter it.

* * *

"That poor man. Regina, how could you do this? He didn't kidnap Kathryn Nolan." The blonde's glare darkened further and Regina almost delighted in the impotent rage fairly rolling off the other woman.

"He confessed. I thought you'd want to hear it, Sheriff."

"I don't need lies, Regina. I want the _truth_."

Regina bit her lip to prevent a cheeky 'You can't handle the truth' from passing her lips.

Emma went on. "And I will find it, Regina." Green-hazel demanded Regina's attention. In them, Regina read Emma's determination. Her own back straightened further with her own stubbornness. "And I'm going to do one more thing," Emma added. There was a note of deadly promise in Emma's voice. Regina wondered if this would be the final battle Henry always spoke of between the White Knight and the Evil Queen. She'd almost forgotten that Emma was supposedly so much more than a mere thorn in Regina's side.

Regina lingered in the turbulent air between them, catching wisps of Emma's breath on her face. When the words came, they did indeed feel like the opening blow of a battle royale.

"I'm going to sue for custody of Henry. And you're not to come near him again."

Regina struck out with all the venom she possessed - as blind a rage as had left the photograph in shreds. She burst forward; Emma stepped back. Regina's lip curled in a snarl, glad to induce even momentary fear. She grabbed Emma's arm as it tried to come up between them. Nails bared and digging into Emma's wrist, Regina growled.

"Try it. I'll make sure you never see another sunrise."

She threw aside Emma's arm and pushed physically past the other woman. She burst from the Sheriff's office front door, nearly leveling a passing jogger.

Tears burned at the back of her eyes but she refused to let them fall where anyone could see. _Damn it! I need to get out of here!_ She was halfway home - on foot - before she remembered her car was at City Hall, and she registered the fact that her feet in 3-inch heels were absolutely killing her. Wresting the stylish pumps off, she clutched them in her hand and continued walking. The tears would not be held at bay any longer though and streamed hot and heavy down her cheeks.

_What in the world am I going to do now?_

* * *

Emma was shaking. She noticed that fact when she tried to draw a deeper breath and reach for the doorknob to reenter the office. _Damn it!_ she rubbed her hands together and grabbed again for the knob. She shoved it out of her way so hard it banged into the wall. Her gaze caught Sidney's jump out of the corner of her eye and she rounded on him where he had been sitting at the booking desk.

"Go _home_, Sidney," Emma growled.

"But."

"Go. _The fuck._ Home. I _know_ who was pulling your strings. Get. Out." She bit through both of the last two words. The mild-mannered man couldn't withstand the verbal blows and fled.

Emma grabbed the nearest large object - an electric pencil sharpener. Though not as satisfying as the toaster or the vase, the clatter of it against the wall and floor as it exploded in bits and pieces released some of her tension. The silence following made the room she needed for her overflowing tears.

_What in the hell am I supposed to do now?_


End file.
